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A native of Wales, a name given by the Anglo-Saxons to the Britons who originally came from Gaul, which the Saxons pronounced Wealas, Wales, Welsh, and Wallia. A principality of Great Britain, on the west of England, one hundred and twenty miles long, and eighty broad.

The creation of Wales: 8th - 9th century AD

The digging of Offa's dyke in the 8th century, as the effective border between Anglo-Saxon England and Celtic Wales, formalizes a situation which has existed for a century and a half. Victories near Bath (in 577) and near Chester (in 613) have brought the Anglo-Saxons to the Bristol Channel and the Irish Sea, restricting the Celtic tribes to the great western peninsula protected by the Welsh mountains.

In this enforced seclusion lies the beginning of the Welsh identity. The region is called Wales from an Anglo-Saxon word wealas, meaning 'foreigners'. Similarly the beleaguered Celts begin to call themselves cymry ('fellow-countrymen'), naming their shared territory Cymru.

Like their Celtic neighbours over the water in Ireland, the Welsh have a strong early tradition of Christianity. But St David, the patron saint of Wales, is a more shadowy figure than Ireland's St Patrick. Little is known of him except that he founds several monasteries in the late 6th century and makes his own ecclesiastical base at Mynyw, now known after him as St David's.

The Welsh retain their Celtic version of Christianity much longer than the English. The Roman calculation of Easter is not accepted in Wales until 768, more than a century after the synod of Whitby.

By the middle of the 9th century the Welsh tribes are beginning to merge into something resembling a nation, through the usual combination of warfare and marriage between the ruling families. Rhodri Mawr (mawr meaning 'the Great') is widely accepted as king of almost the entire region by the time of his death in 878. But centralized power is dissipated by the Celtic custom of sharing an inheritance between all the sons of a royal house.

Rulers in Wales are also, like their neighbours in Anglo-Saxon England, under constant threat from Viking invasions. The Welsh are particularly vulnerable from 838, when the Vikings settle across the Irish Sea in Dublin. But it is Vikings in another form, as Normans, who have a lasting effect in Wales.

KINGS & QUEENS
Year	Monarch
LEADERS
The Kingdom Wales
825-844	Merfyn Frych (Merfyn the Freckled)
844-878	Rhodri Mawr (Rhodri the Great)
878-916	Anarawd
916-942	Idwal Foel (Idwahl the bald)
950-979	Lago
979-985	Hywel (Hywel the bad)
985-986	Cadwallon
999-1005	Maredudd ap Owain
1018-1023	Llywelyn ap Seisyll
1039-1063	Gruffydd ap Llywelyn
1081-1137	Gruffydd ap Cynan
1135-1137	Gruffydd ap Rhys
1137-1170	Owain Gwynedd
1170-1194	Dafydd and Rhodri ap Owain
1194-1240	Llywelyn ap Lorwerth
1240-1246	David
1246-1282	Llywelyn ap Gruffydd
British Monarchy
1272-1307	Edward I
1307-1327	Edward II
1327-1377	Edward III
1377-1399	Richard II
1399-1413	Henry IV
1413-1422	Henry V
1422-1461	Henry VI
1461-1483	Edward IV
1483	Edward V
1483-1485	Richard III
1485-1509	Henry VII